1. The best Avengers movie can’t be made
In 2002 'Kick-Ass' creator Mark Millar was asked to rejig 'The Avengers' for the new Ultimate comic book line (a popular series of titles that rebooted Marvel's most famous superheroes). Calling it 'The Ultimates', Millar's version of the superhero group was gritty, violent and wholly entertaining. It was an action-packed story featuring a truly kick ass Captain America, a brilliantly cocky Tony Stark and a black Nick Fury, who looked very much like Samuel L Jackson (Jackson was cast in 'Iron Man' purely because of this series). Until 'The Ultimates', Fury had always been a grizzled white man.
Backed by Bryan Hitch's cinematic drawings, you had the perfect film storyboard for an 'Avengers' movie.
The problem? It would have cost hundreds of millions of pounds. Unless Marvel and Disney have bottomless pockets, don't expect Hulk smashing up streets and aliens invading the world quite like Hitch and Millar depicted.
And that brings us to our next concern.
2. Are studio bosses cutting corners?
It was reported last week by Bleeding Cool that pre-production work on the movie had been put back a few weeks due to negotiations over the film's budget.
The actors' salaries notwithstanding, considering the necessary special effects and big actions sequences, a film this size needs to have money thrown at it. Otherwise, what's the point? No one wants to see a scene featuring Captain America and Iron Man talking about their problems over coffee – even if it's written by Whedon.
The website claims that Marvel Studios want the film to cost roughly the same as the first 'Spider-Man' movie, which was about 100 million pounds. It's still a huge amount of money, but enough for this kind of picture? Marvel, of course, has history with penny pinching.
One of the appeals of casting Robert Downey Jr. in 'Iron Man' was that his salary was relatively cheap for such a fine actor, and they reportedly axed Terrence Howard from the second movie because he was too expensive. There were similar rumours concerning 'Iron Man' director Jon Favreau's lack of involvement for 'The Avengers' movie.
3. Too many egos spoil the broth
Actors have egos. There, we said it.
Now, the set could turn out to be one of the most peaceful and loving places in film history, full of back slapping and graciousness in allowing other actors to grab their screen glory. Of course, it could also be one where high-profile actors like Downey Jr, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson battle it out with their rising star counterparts Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth for every single second of screen time.
Downey Jr joked with MTV recently, “I just read the script and it's going to be fantastic. Once I tear his script to smithereens and fix it, we're going to have a great movie.”
Or at least we think it was a joke.
For the other two possible reasons and the full article, follow the link.
So, what do you think of these observations? Sound off below.